Waikaraka Park – 13/11/09

First off - really? A Friday? With Auckland’s traffic problems?
With racing last weekend at Huntly I had not even had the time to take the car out of the transporter and wash it! But this night was going to be quite big for us. The driver who was supposed to race the 63a car for the night had a change of priorities (i.e. was told he wasn’t allowed!) which was to mean the 63a car would have to stand down.  However! Wayne put up his hand to give the car a run which meant this would be the first time ever that all three of the Marx Brothers were to be racing at the same time, in cars all built by Dad. It was a fantastic achievement! Another couple of firsts for the night was the use of an in-car camera, and finally remembering to grab the portable gas cooker and some sausages for the crew!  The food at the track - while being often rubbish is now at silly prices too.  Like the car, it does appear that I need to work on this; the tray I grabbed  was way too thin so the sausages ended up by being a little burnt...well maybe a lot burnt....ok fine completely burnt on the outside with just a little bit of heat in the middle.

Anyway, we pushed the 53a car out of the trailer to find a broken coil over from the previous week; looking at it we were quite surprised that I even managed to finish the last race.  After a quick repair job the car was ready to go.  Nine cars fronted for the first night of Superstocks - a big thank you to the visitors from Huntly!

Race 1; once again a terrible start which saw me drop back a few spots.  But circulating quite well all things considered.  Then the brakes all of a sudden got really bad and it was a case of hanging on.  On about lap 4 24H spun in front on me and a few laps later 73a, 63a, and 85h all had a spin in pit bend which meant I slipped up to 2nd.  That lasted for about half a lap before my ears were full of a mighty Nissan powering up the inside and the orange bumper of the tank pushing me to one side.  It’s these occasions you really notice a distinct lack of horsepower.  I followed the Tank as best I could all the way to the end to finish 3rd.  I’d like to say I recorded the race, but who would think that a camera with only 2 buttons would be so tricky to operate.
We checked over the brake to find the rear brake pads had vanished along with one of the calliper pistons leaving a 50mm hole for all the brake fluid to escape.  Oh well you have to keep on trucking!

Race 2; imagine this, your all belted up preparing to hurtle around the track as fast as you can go with no brakes.  You line up on the grid next to the tank.  You can feel you heart start to pound as the flag goes up.  Engine revs increase all around you as the flag drops, so does the clutch, a huge launch into the car ahead......and you stall it!
How embarrassing, thankfully the car behind pushes you with enough force that you roll onto the infield.  Spending the next couple of laps on the infield cranking on the starter the engine finally burst into life and I pull back out onto the track behind Wayne in 63a.  It took me a good few laps to catch and get past Wayne, he was going really well then all of a sudden around pit bend he veered off to the right and I went through on the inside. 

Race 3; with 28H streaking off into the lead and the tank spinning Bryce all before the end of the first lap, what was to happen next was quite a surprise.  Coming out of cemetery bend the tank started pushing on the outside side rail of 63a, so Wayne turned right a little and pushed back to have some fun.  As I went pass they were heading to the wall on a funny angle then next thing I see are the red lights, looking back across the track I could see the underside of the tank.  With only a handful of cars left running it was then just a run to the finish.